OPINION REverse logistics

Gary Sullivan OBE FCILT updates us on the extreme logistics projects that the Royal Engineers face.

26 FOCUS APRIL 2016 Building to UK standards, with no natural The UK construction industry has, for a resources mans that all materials and long time, used materials and products equipment have to come from the UK from around the world, and over 60% of All images are Crown Copyright materials on major projects arrive in the UK by boat. However, the Royal Engineers (RE) have a unique twist to their latest project, where 99% of the material for the project is sourced in the UK, consolidated in Ripon, North Yorkshire, and then delivered 8,470 miles away to three mountain tops in the . This is extreme logistics. The RE are used to working overseas. In the last 15 years, they have tended to operate in the hot climates of Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. A windswept archipelago in the South Atlantic, just 500 miles from the Antarctic, where even in the summer temperatures rarely enter double figures, is a new challenge. The extreme weather is only one differing factor for the RE. Although they are soldiers deployed as the British Army, for Project Anemoi they are working for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). Project Anemoi is replacing the accommodation at the top of three mountains in the Falkland Islands, Alice and Byron on (population 330), and Kent, overlooking Port Stanley on (population 2,250). Built by the RE after the conflict with Argentina in 1982, to house the RAF’s radar operators, the original buildings have finally worn out. This phase of the project is being delivered by 21 Engineer Regiment. The Squadron Commander for the logistics element is Captain Tony Davies, who smiles as he describes Project Anemoi: ‘It is a logistics operation with a little bit of construction tagged on the end.’ Of course, he is teasing those colleagues engaged in the building process. However, the task to deliver all materials, except the type one stone used for batching concrete, is no mean feat.

AUTHOR Gary Sullivan OBE FCILT SECTOR HIGHLIGHTS

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Anemoi, from the Greek for wind Consolidation of material at gods, brings together the many elements of the RE to deliver new-build, permanent, single-storey accommodation to three separate locations, to last for the next 30 years. The RE are most of the way through phase 2, the substructure works, of a five-phase programme that will take three years to complete. The weather is too extreme in the winter to be able to work. Phase 5 is the demolition of the existing structures and their removal back to the UK. Building to UK standards and with no natural resources or manufacturing, other than the stone from a quarry on the island, means that all materials, plant and equipment have to come from the but back in 1982, merchant ships shipping for the MOD, are UK. When your only procurement were commandeered. This time, roll-on/roll-off sealift ships with a option is over 8,000 miles away, it has to be done within a budget, displacement of 23,000t. Once on you have to have a plan for every whilst using existing resources. board the ro-ro ferry there is no part and a part for every plan. The RE also have a mandate not to opportunity to change your mind, If you forget just one item, the disrupt the existing supply chain it is a six-week journey to the Above: Project arrangements for the Falkland delay to the build could be over Anemoi is replacing Falklands. Islanders as they go about their eight weeks. the accommodation The RE are only allocated space for at the top of three day-to-day business. The Procured from around the UK and mountains in the economic activity, mostly farming 70 ISOs, which they double stack, delivered to the consolidation area Falklands Islands and the supporting services, has and there is only one ship every in Ripon, the journey south to site to continue without interruption. five or six weeks. On arrival at Mare requires boats, planes and Harbour on East Falkland, the ISOs automobiles, and begins with every The trucks roll into the army’s Sea are taken ashore for inspection by item being checked and rechecked Mounting Centre at Marchwood on the government and are screened Below: Extreme before beginning the first stage of Southampton Water, where the for biohazards. Once checked, the terrain and army gets to take them into the this complex and exceptional conditions can containers are offloaded. The journey to the South Atlantic. Of make the project an Falkland Island Resupply Ships tactical logistics base some 35 course, this has been done before; even tougher task (FIRS), operated by Foreland miles from Stanley. is close, but Mounts Alice and Byron are still some 220 miles away. The ISOs are stacked and checked again. Counting bags of sand, cement and steel reinforcing bars is laborious, with the biting cold wind making the job even more difficult. It is a thankless but necessary task for those operating under the watchful eye of Staff Sergeant Phil Leyland and his team. From here, the materials are requested or pulled forward by the construction teams for the 220-mile journey across the Falklands to site. It is far from straightforward. The roads on East Falkland are partly blacktopped, but there are high winds and although it is summer now you can have snow, sleet and sunshine in the same morning. The route from Mare Harbour goes from one side of the island to the other, past then on to New Haven to meet the next ship, The Concordia Bay.

28 FOCUS APRIL 2016 takes about one hour and forty-five toll, but they have kept the trucks minutes, and the waves crashing rolling and the concrete mixers over the bow are a reminder that turning. The last few miles to the the Southern Ocean is just a few top are slower still. When there is nautical miles away. As you arrive in snow, the trucks have to unload at , you realise it is less of the bottom and use the tracked a port and more of a slipway, with BV206 Bandvagn all-terrain vehicle just a few homesteads and sheep (ATV) to haul materials to the top. for company. UK standards still apply and drivers’ hours are an The air bridge is provided by the issue. Drivers and trucks stop RAF’s Voyager (based on the overnight in a sheep shearers’ modern Airbus A330-200) and, in shed, rented from the local farmer. conjunction with the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III, provides the To supplement the ferry service, passenger transport to move the the RE have employed the service RE to and from the South Atlantic. of a Dutch barge The Damen They can, of course, carry cargo, Shoalbuster Dintlestroom and its work barge MP3002, operated by too, but there are many demands Dutch contractor Van Wijngaarden for space for the military folk based Marine Services. The vessel on the islands. supports a contract placed with the Concordia The British Army has undergone The is a 45.5m landing Netherlands-based company by many changes recently, including craft built in Malaysia in 2006. It is the MOD to provide harbour adapting to what it calls the Whole flagged in the Falkland Islands as a support, mooring, maintenance, passenger/cargo vessel and owned general support and coastal Force, where the Regulars, by Workboat Services Ltd. As a resupply services. Reservists and the private sector passenger vessel, it has facilities for work together to provide the up to 30 day passengers, but no The roads on West Falkland are a required effect. Why then is the overnight facilities. It makes on mix of metalled roads and farm RE delivering a commercial-style average 350 crossings a year. tracks. The 12t payload of the contract that might otherwise be However, the RE have added to ManSV trucks make it a slow and delivered by a private contractor? boneshakingly painful drive, with that number to ensure the flow of Major Chris Hulme, Officer an average speed of 15mph. The material to Mounts Byron and Alice Commanding, explains: ‘The is maintained. The skipper and attrition of tyres and windscreens Below: Anemoi extreme location and the extreme crew are pleased to have the army is significant and for the Royal brings together weather call for extreme logistics. as a customer. They appreciate the Electrical and Mechanical Engineers many elements of the Royal The skills we have in the RE allow degree of difficulty involved in this (REME) fitters it is a challenge to Engineers to deliver project and have developed a great keep the trucks on the road. The us to operate in all areas of the new, permanent, world, which makes us very a very working relationship with the REME, too, had to plan for spares. single-storey soldiers. Crossing The extreme terrain has taken its accommodation able option for the DIO. This is also a chance for [the RE] to develop our skills further and to use the investment of our training to deliver a value-for-money outcome for the UK taxpayer.’ The project will continue until 2018 and our servicemen and women will gain valuable experience. The view is that the armed forces are more likely to be involved in expeditionary operations, whether that is peacekeeping, humanitarian aid or combat. Whatever they are asked to do next, we can rely on their knowledge and their ability to deliver in any part of the world.

About the author Gary Sullivan OBE FCILT is Chairman, construction logistics contractor Wilson James Ltd. He is also a Colonel in the Engineer & Logistics Staff Corps and co-author of Managing Construction Logistics.

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